News From The Management
From The Management
With all the latest news and updates from the entire Aylesbury United management team, as well as periodic reports from the club captain, this is the best place to keep in touch with the goings on at the club.
We also welcome any questions from supporters. If you have something you wish to put to management team then please e-mail info@aylesburyunitedfc.co.uk.
2008
Since our last update in June and due to a lot of rumours flying around I would like to update your on how things are shaping up for the new season.
Firstly on the playing side as previously reported virtually all of the squad re signed at the in June this year with the exception of James Faulkner who has since signed for Basingstoke. Every year we want to improve the squad but we also have to be mindful of the tight budget we have to operate on. We also knew that we had players returning from long term injury which would be like signing new players. We believe that the squad we now have is a big improvement on last year below here is our first team squad: Tom Vincent, Jack Sillitoe, Chris Aslett, Stuart Cattell, Carl Kavanagh, Nick Leach, Ross Taylor, Kevin Mealor, Mark Jones, Sam Swonnel, Stuart Maynard, Liam Smyth, Matt Butler, Adam Rhodes, Jason Costello, Glen Hawkins, Andy Shed, Nathan Graham, Craig Henney, Steve Miles, Ronnie Joe. We are also waiting for Danny Mead to recover from a shoulder op before acquiring his services.
During the close season Tommo, Ken and I agreed that we would aim to have a number of challenging pre season fixtures which would mean a few less training nights; we also consulted with senior players who all felt this was a good idea. It was no secret that we also wanted to try out new formations and these fixtures would give us the platform to do this. Just like last year with Liam and Butts we have been incredibly unlucky with injuries but thankfully none to serious.
When we finished the game against Thatcham last Tuesday our injured or unavailable read like this: Carl Kavanagh (ankle 3 weeks), Mark Jones (calf strain 2 weeks), Craig Henney (groin strain 2 weeks), Andy Shed (ankle time frame yet to be diagnosed) Adam Rhodes (groin strain 2 weeks), Liam Smyth (yet to play after long term injury 3 weeks), Matt Butler (same as Liam 1 week left), Sam Swonnel (dead leg 2 weeks), Nathan Graham (twisted ankle whilst jogging 2 weeks), Glen Hawkins (resumed training this week after knee surgery). Adding to this unavailable for the Bashley game were: Kevin Mealor (wedding), Ben Stevens (attending Kevin’s wedding), Nick Leach (away for the weekend) and Ross Taylor (attending another wedding)
That adds up to 14 of our first team squad being unavailable. In hindsight we could have started pre season a week earlier to give a few more training sessions before playing matches. Most of the injuries have been caused by the exceptionally hard surfaces at this time of year.
On the positive note virtually all of our injured players will be ready for the kick off on the 16th. Matt Butler and Liam Smyth have been given the green light to play and both have been doing everything in training as mentioned Glen Hawkins has also resumed training. We are also delighted to secure the signature of ex Duck Stuart Maynard who will bring added experience to our young squad.
There have also been rumours off the field and it would be untruthful to not state that the longer we play out of Aylesbury the more difficult each season gets both financially and logistically but as a management team all we can do is works as hard as we can to get the squad ready for a long hard and hopefully a successful season and let the Chairman and his committee work out what needs to be done off the field.
As of last year both Tommo and I will post regular updates to keep you all informed.
All the best,
Mark
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Firstly on the squad side. I have now sat down with all the players on a one to one basis and discussed with them our aspirations on the playing side for next season. I am delighted to say that 16 of the 19 have already signed with 3 more considering their options.
The 16 already committed for next season are: Tom Vincent, Jack Sillitoe, Carl Kavanagh, Nick Leach, Chris Aslett, Mark Jones, Liam Smyth, Matty Butler, Sam Swonnell, Ben Stevens, Kev Mealor, Glen Hawkins, Andy Shed, Craig Henney, Nathan Graham and Jason Castello.
At the start of June I consider this absolutely fantastic, particularly when you have sides from not too far away from here and with considerably more money than us openly trying to tap up half of our side. I consider it a real compliment that these advances have been rejected by the players and they have demonstrated that loyalty is alive and well! All the players enjoy each other’s company and want to learn and improve on last season’s efforts.
The 3 players yet to respond are Stuart Cattell, Ross Taylor and James Faulkner. I am hopeful that at least one of these three will commit themselves to the club by the time pre-season starts on 3rd July. There are also 5 local players recommended to me that I have invited to join us at pre-season.
If we were to kick off the season tomorrow with the 16 we have signed on already I would be in a positive frame of mind about our chances of doing well.
I have released Mike Feely and Danny Nicholls whilst Nathan Liburd has decided to join Barton Rovers.
So as you can see we are moving forwards on the playing front. I honestly do believe that we just need a little bit more self belief when we go to away matches against the teams at the top of the league as opposed to our players not being good enough. At home we have beaten the promoted sides whilst our record away to these teams is poor.
Each year I can see individuals improving and more self belief emerging. The players are slowly realising that the opposition is only as good as you allow them to be.
As we showed against the two promoted sides Evesham and Stourbridge away from home we were turned over far too easily for my liking but later on in the season we had a right go at them at home defeating both.
On the pre-season schedule I have to say a big thank you to our secretary Chris Dann who has put together a really good set of fixtures. Sometimes people don’t realise how difficult it is when you have to ask for away fixtures all the time due to the fact that we currently do not have our own ground.
I have deliberately aimed to have more matches and hence fewer training sessions than last year to try different players and formations as much as possible so Chris has done exceptionally well to secure games against Banbury, Brackley, Windsor & Eton, Bedford, Thatcham, Bashley, North Leigh and Aston Clinton.
I shall update everyone further as future developments take place.
Tommo
2008
We are now very much into the business end to the season in our last report on the 14th December we were third and we are now fourth so despite a few blips we are still very much in with a great shout of the play offs. We have been in the play off positions all season and have not ever lost two matches on the trot and I think that consistency is something we can be very proud of.
Some teams have got games in hand but I think most would happily swap the points but no doubt this is going to go to the wire with lots of twists and turns still to come. After the losses to Sutton Coldfield and Leamington we have worked very hard in training on defending as a tight unit and I think in the last three games this has shown. The game against Evesham was a big confidence boost to have finally beaten one of the top teams.
On players we have had a great year of players coming through the ranks and the latest Chris Aslett has been a major find and what a prospect the lad just loves to defend and win big headers an important factor in this league. He has effortlessly stepped up from the youth team to Southern League and we believe will go on to be an excellent player.
We felt for the run in it was important we brought in some new blood to freshen the squad and make it as competitive as possible. Mike Feely, Danny Nicholls and Mark Jones all have Southern League Premier experience but more important than that we now have every position being challenged for whereas earlier in the year it was only the strikers that had this type of competition. It can take a few games for players to settle in and as every game is now of major importance it makes it even more difficult so we have to take this in consideration when making judgements on players.
The team spirit in the camp is still fabulous and this was demonstrated when recording the Bring the Ducks Home song even though the singing certainly wasn't. We are going to be fighting all the way to try and gain promotion but whatever happens this season we have built a platform and a young squad that can definitely go on to bigger and better things hopefully at a new ground in Aylesbury.
We will post another update later in April; all we ask is your continued fantastic support.
Best wishes,
Mark
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